


Where There's Smoke

by antigrav_vector



Series: Bingo - Western AU [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 1872, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Western, Attempted Murder, Cap_Ironman Bingo, Crossover, M/M, Multiverse, Self-Sacrificing Tony Stark, Stony Bingo, Stony Bingo 2016, Suicidal Ideation, Suicidal Thoughts, Tony No, Unrequited Crush, tony what are you doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 06:03:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8275396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: Tony comes to, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, and there's smoke in the air. This can't be good...





	

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the picture prompt  on my bingo card. Betaed by the lovely [navaan](http://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan).

Coming to in the darkness of his smithy with his hands and feet tied felt worse than his head had after Steve's morning visit.

Realizing that there was smoke building inside and he could see the reddish glow of fire was almost enough to make him give up. He couldn't reach any of his tools to get his hands free and standing wasn't an option. He wasn't flexible enough to reach his ankles long enough to find the knots and untie them, or quick enough to do it before the smithy actually burnt down.

It would be a slow horrible end, but his miserable life would be over, and with it any memory of Tony Stark, so called 'hero' of the Battle of the Four Fords. He'd no longer be tormented by the memory of that day. Of the sight and sound, and worse, the smell, of the bodies falling to the weapon he'd hoped would end the war through fear. The weapon he'd thought would only ever be used as a threat. His part in that proved he was hardly a good man, and judging by the rapidity with which he'd been forgotten by those in his old life, the world wouldn't much feel his loss.

His defeatist thoughts were sent scattering like so many birds by a familiar voice.

"Hello?"

Steve was here. Why was Steve here? It wasn't safe.

"Tony, are you in there? Answer me!" Steve sounded worried and Tony was struck by a belated realization.

Steve, the one bright spot in his miserable existence, would probably be sad if he let this be the end. Tony drew a breath and coughed on the smoke, groaning when the movement jostled his very sore body.

"Tony!" Steve's voice sounded closer. "I can hear you! I'm coming in there, so you'd better tell me where you are!"

Peering around the gloom until he recognized his position, Tony tried again, the thought of Steve's sad face seeming to haunt him. He never had been able to deny the man anything. This time he managed not to choke on the air he inhaled. "In here," he managed to get out. "Forge."

Tony was pretty sure he'd lost some time to the haze that felt like it was blanketing his thoughts as effectively and thoroughly as the smithy itself, for the next thing he knew Steve had him in a princess carry and was hurrying back out into the yard behind the building, hunched over him.

Out in the evening light, Tony could see that Steve was soot streaked, as though he'd spent a lot more time in a burning building than was strictly wise, and his hat was missing. The badge on his vest, on the other hand, seemed to shine like the star it represented. 

"You're coming with me, this time," Steve told him, sternly. "And you're letting Bruce have a look at you."

Steve paid no attention to Tony's protesting groan.

Maybe all was not quite as it should be. But the important things were.

\------


End file.
